What a horrible day it had been at school today. So much so that the filly would rather not think about it as she trotted slowly towards the Boutique she called home. Sweetie had gotten in trouble at school today and in spite of her claims of innocence, she had been forced to stay for detention afterwards. In reality this ‘detention’ was her being forced to clean up the mess she had made, but still, pasta was hard to get out of the woodwork. And her hair. What irked her the most was that the entire accident took so long to clean up that her friends Scootaloo and Apple Bloom had already gone to their respective homes leaving her to walk the dirt streets of Ponyville on her own, in the light of the setting sun. As she walked along though she was suddenly surprised with a rogue spaghetti noddle dislodged from somewhere in her locks and fell onto her muzzle. Sweetie sighed; life could be so hard sometimes.

Whipping the offending noddle from her muzzle with a jerk of her head, she climbed the steps onto the patio, but stopped when something by the front door of the Boutique caught her eye.

She stood there on the front porch, her progress home from school momentarily halted by a small, unopened parcel. There didn’t appear to be anything special about it, the parcel, it was only a squarish shaped box, wrapped in brown crate paper, and only slightly bigger than the ivory filly’s hoof but still, it bothered her that it sat there next to the door. Lonely, and ignored. Her purple and pink curls bobbed to the side as she tilted her head, studying the box as if it would reveal whatever mysteries were inside, but alas, the paper held against her vision. She thought maybe Rarity, her elder sister, may not have been home when it was delivered, or maybe she me home but did not see it by the door – though Sweetie thought it impossible to miss – or maybe, just maybe, it was an object that Rarity didn’t want. The latter of these ideas meant that Sweetie Belle might be allowed to keep whatever was inside for herself, and she liked that idea. Especially since that idea might somehow lead to her getting her Cutie Mark.

Picking up the small box in her mouth, Sweetie burst through the front door, closing it quickly behind her. It wasn’t as if she disrespected Rarity or anything, the package was addressed to her after all but contained no return address, it was just that she really, really wanted her Cutie Mark, especially after the day she had at school. It wasn’t her fault they had a cooking activity today, it also wasn’t her fault that Diamond Tiara didn’t think spaghetti was an appropriate wig, and who knew that spaghetti could be explosive when heated improperly, accident or no.

“Wharithee?” She called out, and then set the box on the smooth wooden floor, prancing some ways across it as she looked for her sister.

“Rarity? Are you here?!” She called out at the top of her lungs, and thought she heard a window shake in its frame.

“There’s a package I found by the door! Did you know it was there?!” She asked a leading question, and was met again with silence.

“It’s okay if you don’t want to open it! I’ll open it for you, all you have to say is nothing ‘cause I know you’re busy, I’m doing you a favor okay?!” She said with a grin, taking several strides towards the package, with her ears trained to upstairs, but there was silence.

With a victorious giggle, Sweetie grabbed the box between her hooves and tore it open with her mouth revealing the box beneath, then threw the top to the side and tore open the tissue paper inside.

On the bottom of the box lay a horseshoe of curious workmanship. It seemed as though it were a standard size shoe for an adult, though the metal itself shone in a dark, iridescent blue, with a lighter blue writing that she didn’t recognize running from the heel, around the curve and only stopping at the center of the toe where a pink crystal had been expertly inlaid into the metal. She stared at it for a moment or two, thinking it may be some sort of award or gift for work Rarity had made for a client. But as she mulled it over, the beginnings of a wonderful idea began to form and at the same time, a grin came to Sweetie’s lips. She would use the newly learned telekinesis Rarity had been teaching her to move the horseshoe up into her sister’s display cabinet to surprise her that it had arrived. Oh, Rarity would love that, and Sweetie could practice her magic. A win, win, if you asked her.

Narrowing her green eyes, Sweetie reached into herself as Rarity had taught her, finding that place where her Magic lived and was strongest, and coxing it upwards into her horn. The soft sound of sparkling bells filled her ears as her horn held onto a light blue aura, which she then directed at the horseshoe. However, instead of glowing with her aura, the fancy horseshoe simply took the energy she had placed on it, and absorbed it instead, dancing her magic along the surface of the metal like static electricity, breaking her concentration, and aura.

“Huh?” Sweetie wondered aloud, blinking several times before narrowing her eyes and trying again.

But again, there was several sparks of static electricity across the horseshoe’s surface before it broke her concentration. A third try met with the same result and her face began to redden a bit. Dang it! Rarity might be home any moment and that would ruin the surprise, as well as the fact that she had opened a package addressed to Rarity in the first place. Hopping forwards, Sweetie reached out and grabbed at the shoe instead, but before her hoof even made contact with the shoe, the curved metal relic jumped from the box and onto her hoof like a magnet.

White and pink light from the horseshoe was suddenly the only thing Sweetie could see as the horseshoe began to shrink, and rotate on its own around her hoof. Flailing her hoof, she screamed as she tried to fling the thing away but a moment later there was a flash of pink light as wind blew from her hoof, followed by a thunk of something hitting the wall, and Sweetie fell onto her back. Her vision blurred as everything around her started to spin as if she were stuck in a tornado, slowly at first then picking up speed until she couldn’t tell what was spinning anymore, and couldn’t hear anything over the roar of the wind. She yelled for her Mother and Father, she yelled for Rarity, but the vortex around her continued to pick up speed until finally, everything flashed in a collage white, pink, and purple.

* * *

She stood in the middle of a crowded, smoky room. All about the filly were adults milling about between tables and chair. Some were eating, some were standing and speaking quietly with others. Through the dim light she could make out what appeared to be Canterlot out the windows on one side, but it was hard to tell from her low vantage point. Sweetie’s ears perked up as she heard something over the crowd, something beautiful, that was coming from the one well lit portion of the room. But she couldn’t see it, there was too many ponies in the way, especially in the direction that the sound was coming from.

Winding through the crowd, Sweetie listened as the beautiful noise became music, and she could make out that some pony was singing, but couldn’t make out the words. It almost seemed as though she were singing in another language. But it was becoming more difficult to wind through the crowd the closer she got to where the lights; the crowd was even closer together up here and though she bumped into a few of the adult stallions and mares, none of them seemed to react or even acknowledge that she was there. Sweetie tested this theory by intentionally bumping into another pony, and while the stallion took a step to the side momentarily, he did not react, but continued to watch the area where the music played. With new vigor, Sweetie pushed her way through the crowd in a way that would normally get her in trouble, but she had to see it. She had to see the source of the music.

With one final push, Sweetie Belle all but fell out the front of the crowd and found herself standing in front of a large stage, in the middle of which was a mare, surrounded by what looked like rotten vegetables and trash. It was then Sweetie realized that the crowd of adults wasn’t in fact there to cheer for her, but mock her. But why would they do such a thing? Her voice was beautiful, melodic, in perfect pitch as far as Sweetie could tell, and she even looked nice. Her pink and purple curls cascaded down one side of her neck, contrasting nicely with her white-ish coat, and her bright green eyes. Her eyes! Sweetie realized suddenly that the mare’s eyes were exactly like hers…they were hers, and there was a sadness in them that Sweetie was not familiar with. She was the mare that was on stage attempting to sing away while the crowd mocked and belittled her. It was then, however, that the mare locked eyes with Sweetie and turned just enough so that she could see the mare’s Cutie Mark. It was a very dark blue, horseshoe shaped mark with a single, pink spot near the toe of the shoe just like…just like the one on her hoof.

The little club exploded with deep fuchsia light, cascading over everything as if it were a wildfire being driven by the wind. There was no more club, there was no stage, there was just the light all around her until abruptly, there wasn’t. Sweetie was standing on a small, stone pedestal in the middle of a thick darkness with the only light source being the crystal, embedded on the horseshoe, stuck to her forehoof. But she was not alone, far from it. Though she couldn’t see anything beyond the pedestal, she knew there was somepony out there. Or at least, something out there, and she wasn’t sure which would be worse. But then, the voices started to speak. It was quiet at first, building quickly in strength into a chanting rhythm all around her. Sweetie tried to hold up her hoof and use the crystal as a make shift flashlight, but the light wouldn’t penetrate the darkness around her, and she wished she could remember the flashlight spell that was still just beyond her grasp.

Then she saw it, a small speck of light like a cloud moving towards her from the darkness. The chanting continued to get louder as the cloud approached her, taking on the shape of several creatures that she had never seen before. They walked on their hind legs with their narrow faces set forwards, looking her with beady, black eyes. The majority of their thick, squat bodies were covered in a thick coat of fur that hid where exactly their shoulders and thighs broke away from their bodies, tapering down into small stubby  paws, and whip like tails. But it wasn’t the mouse like spirit’s presence that unnerved her. It was the fact that one of them carried a hammer in one paw and a handful of long, metal nails in the other.

Clamps immediately sprung from the pedestal and closed around all her hooves but the right front, where the horseshoe was. Another clamp on a chain lowered from somewhere above here and quickly closed around her neck and chest, completely immobilizing her. The mouse like spirits were all around here now with their thick, fur covered arms outstretched, chanting away in a language she didn’t know. That was when the one she was afraid of, the spirit with the hammer and nails stepped forward. She struggled vainly against her bonds as the creature spirit came up next to her, bending over, then taking her one free forehoof in his paws. Then she could feel him positioning the nail and…she screamed as hammer drove the glowing white nail into her hoof, but no sound came from her mouth. It felt like her hoof was being split by a fire that pierced through her veins and traveled up her leg and into her chest. And then the spirit drove another nail in. And another.

Sweetie?

She writhed in pain, pulling as hard as she could but getting nowhere as another nail was hammered into her hoof.

Sweetie!

Sweetie didn’t know how much more of this she could take as the firey pain was hammered home again and again until finally her forehoof was dropped and the spirits, still chanting, walked away from her as quickly as they had come, leaving only the image of two glowing, fuchsia, snake like eyes approaching her. The bonds around her hooves were released, and the clamp around her chest opened letting her fall back onto the pedestal, or rather, through it.

SWEETIE!!!

* * *

The image of those lidless eyes burned into the waking world for a moment as Sweetie’s eyes snapped open. She was there, it was there. Sweetie swore that she and it and them were there before she was here. The fear and little bit of the pain in her hoof had followed her back into the waking world was well, but she was safe now, she hoped she was safe now. She was aware that Rarity, her sister, was standing over her with intense concern reflecting in her blue eyes, her head hovering over Sweetie, with her body off to the side.

“Sweetie, are you alright?” She asked, and the fear that had held her in…well whatever that was threatened to overtake her again.

“IgotintroubleatschoolsoIhadtostaylateandwhenIgothomeIfoundapackageonthefrontpatioand—“

Rarity’s hoof covered Sweetie’s mouth, ending the tirade that she couldn’t understand.

“Whatever happened at school isn’t important right now, Sweetie. All I need to know now is where did you get this horseshoe?” Rarity’s tone was caring, but there was no mistaking the sense of urgency in her voice.

“Um…I opened a package for you, I thought it was a trophy but then it stuck to my hoof and…and some scary things happened in a dream after that…” Sweetie trailed off.

“Show me your hoof.” Rarity commanded and Sweetie obeyed.

Rarity looked at the horseshoe for a moment or two, looking at it from the side, then top, then straight on before a light blue aura surrounded her horn. She was trying to remove it, and Sweetie could tell she was trying to remove it because as soon as Rarity’s magic touched the shoe it felt like a knife had been driven into her hoof and up her leg intense enough that Sweetie yelped and pulled her hoof back by reflex. Rarity frowned, and reached out with her hooves, taking the horseshoe and in turn, Sweetie’s hoof by the sides, and pulling on the shoe. Again, pain and again, Sweetie yelped retreated from her sister.

“Rarity stop it! That hurts!” She yelled.

“Sweetie you said you found the shoe in a package, yes? Where is it, quickly!” Rarity demanded.

“It’s um…over there.” She pointed with her hoof, her ears flattening against her head as anxiety took over, “Rarity, what’s going on?”

Rarity ignored her, galloping the short distance to the door where the opened package still lay and pulled a note out of it that Sweetie had remembered seeing at some point. Wrapped in her light blue aura, Rarity’s eyes scanned the page back and forth several times, widening slightly with each line she read.

“Dear Celestia it cannot be…” Rarity shook her head, and looked back at Sweetie, “Dearie, I need you to try removing that horseshoe from your hoof, and I need you to try and do that with all your might.”

Sweetie blinked at Rarity several times, then looked at the crystal embedded shoe on her forehoof and without hesitation, tried to slip it off. But her other hoof kept slipping on the surface so when that didn’t work, Sweetie suck her forehoof down and leveraged her rear hooves on either side of the shoe, then pushed with all her might. But the shoe held fast. Sweetie did note, however, that when she tried to remove the horseshoe it didn’t hurt, but when Rarity had tried to remove it the pain had gone deep into her body, feeling as though it were piercing her soul. Seeing the futility of removing the shoe, Rarity moved quickly to the curtained windows – a fortunate side effect of her not having been home – and peeked out towards the street.

“Sweetie Belle I’m going to ask you to do some things, and it might seem strange, but I need to you do what I ask to the letter, without hesitation. Do you understand?” Rarity asked with that intensity from earlier back in her voice.

“Umm…” Sweetie backed away slightly.

“Do you understand?!”

“Yes!” Sweetie squeaked.

“Good.” She said and glanced out the curtains again, eyes widening somewhat. “Go to my room this instant, and stand by my closet. GO!”

Sweetie hesitated only a moment before she took off across the wood floor and up the stairs to Rarity’s room. She hopped up and got the knob with her teeth, and kicked off the molding, swinging the door open. Landing on her hooves Sweetie quickly located the door Rarity wanted her to stand next to, and skid to a halt in front of it. She wasn’t sure what was going on or why Rarity sounded the way she did – which frightened her – but she knew if Rarity was going to sound that way, she needed to be listened to. A commotion was heard from downstairs, and Sweetie swore that she heard her sister’s trademark ‘Hiii-yaa!’, followed by a loud thump against the a wall and the breaking of glass. Suddenly, Rarity was at the door frame, dragging three of her ponyequins behind her with her magic, and slammed the door shut with her rear hoof, locking it.

“Open the closet, Sweetie, and move the laundry basket out of the way, I don’t care where you put it.” Rarity said as she pulled the tail off one of her ponyquins, and her horn lit up as she looked into the hole.

Remembering the warning from downstairs, Sweetie opened the closet door and located the laundry basket on the farthest left side, grabbing the handle with her teeth and pulling hard and tossing the laundry into the room behind her. Rarity was still working on something through the hole in the ponyquin until Sweetie heard something click. Her sister moved fast then, pushing Sweetie quickly into the closet and shutting the door behind her.

“Hold on to me tightly, Sweetie.” Rarity whispered, and pressed part of the molding on the wall with her forehoof until it also clicked.

“Rarity, what’s going—” Sweetie was abruptly cut off as the floor gave way beneath her hooves and she and her sister fell into blackness.

* * *

POOF!

Rainbow Dash finished off the lone cloud in the sky spreading her wings out again as she leveled from the dive into a lazy cruising speed, angling her head back towards Ponyville. It had been a good day so far and though she didn’t have a stopwatch with her, she was sure that she had cleared the skies in 9.95 seconds this time instead of the normal 10. Unofficially, of course. But she was still satisfied with herself, even if she was the only one that knew it, so she wore a smug little smile as she glided back over the village, looking down at the goings-on beneath her. She angled her decent so that she could touch down in the middle of Ponyville square if she felt like it.

She also thought that it had been a while since she had stopped into see her friend Rarity, though wasn’t quite sure why that thought popped into her head. She knew that she saw Twilight at least twice a week, Fluttershy, Pinkie, and Applejack pretty much once a day, and she felt as though to uphold her bearership of Loyalty, she needed to spend some time with the girly girl of the group. Though Rainbow drew the line at a tea party, assuming Rarity’s little sister was there. So she angled herself towards the Carousel Boutique and though in the distance, something seemed off. Why was one of the windows broken?

KRAKA-BOOOOOM!

The flash was bright enough that Rainbow temporarily lost her ability to steer her wings and on instinct, pulled up into a hover, rubber her eyes until her vision returned. When it did, however, she didn’t want to believe her eyes – she didn’t want to believe that what had happened had happened – that the Boutique had been turned to nothing but a hole in the ground, and splinters.